Speaking at her new restaurant at Norwich City Football Club, Delia Smith had just enough time between courses to talk to us about her new book, Delia's Vegetarian Collection. Here, she explains why she decided to do a vegetarian book despite loving meat, why American cooking inspires her, and why she hates broccoli.
Why did you decide to write the Vegetarian Collection?
DS: We've had a lot of requests; people have always wanted it and I've always meant to do it, and now I've done it, so let's hope it's what people want in the end.
What market will the book appeal to?
DS: It's very nice not to have to look through every book of mine to find the vegetarian recipes. There are a lot of people who are not vegetarians but who cook for vegetarians on a regular basis, so I hope it will be a service for them as well as the vegetarians themselves. I think everybody now is on board with vegetarian food. When I first started writing about cooking there was Cranks restaurant in London and that was all but it's grown and grown and grown and it's become a very important part of eating. What I wanted was to provide, for the people who wanted it, all the vegetarian recipes that I really rate in one place.
You're known as a meat lover but do you like vegetarian food?
DS: I started writing recipes 33 years ago and I've always done vegetarian recipes because I eat vegetarian food quite often. In our house some of our favourite recipes happen to be vegetarian but I still very much enjoy meat and I believe in meat.
Can you recommend a vegetarian fast food?
DS: Lentils take 25 minutes to cook and one of the greatest meals for total balance in nutrition is beans on toast. It's lovely. If you pair grains with pulses you?ve got first class protein; exactly the same as meat.
What are your favourite vegetables?
DS: Runner beans. It's a beautiful vegetable and no one ever serves it in a restaurant. You need a machine to do it, because the secret of the runner bean is that it?s got to be sliced thinly, and when it's sliced thinly it only goes in the water for a brief amount of time and it's luscious. And you only have it once a year. It?s not like boring boring broccoli, which is always there. Whatever restaurant you go into, it's always there. And boring boring mangetout.
Which ingredient will have the Delia effect this time?
DS: Not Swedes! I don't think there's anything in this book that's going to be the new ingredient.
Will cooking as an art survive?
DS: It's quite a battle with supermarkets and ready meals but I think cooking will survive because human beings are creative and they like to eat real food
What are you hoping to do in the future as far as cookery is concerned?
DS: We're looking at the Vegetarian Collection and if that's successful what might happen in the future is other collections because after 30 years and millions and millions of recipes I've build up a fantastic amount. When you come home from work at night and you've got a chicken in the fridge why not have a book on chicken? Or if you want a chocolate dessert, why not have a book on chocolate? We could do an Italian book or a menu book. I get a lot of people writing to me saying they want a menu book. On the website we ran some research and what people want more than anything else in the world is advice on menus. People say 'I've got people coming to dinner and I want you to give me a first course, a main course and a dessert, and please tell me what to do' the day before. I'd like to do a menu book.
What's the secret of your success?
DS: I founded my whole career by listening to what people want and giving them what they want. It's not that I have instincts that are good; it's just that I listen.
What's your favourite recipe?
DS: I don't have any favourite dishes. It's like music. I can't boil it down to one.
Are you influenced by fads and fashions in cooking? DS: I fell into a few traps early on. I fell into the latest crazes and regretted it. Now I just stand back and wait and watch and if I'm cooking and I go into the supermarket and I want to buy carrots, if the organic carrots are better I'll buy those, and if the non-organic ones are better I'll buy those. And I have to say that very often the non-organic ones are fresher. With my first book I was told if you don't do freezing we won't publish it, because freezing was a big big thing in 1972. I said I can't do freezing, and they said we can't publish your book. You won't be a success. I always say when recipes do freeze well, but most of the time they don't. It's not as good. I do use the freezer and now I'm using it more and more because I want to buy really good ingredients from places like farmers' markets. I have to use the freezer because you can't go to a farmers' market every day. But recipes, I never think they taste as good.
Where do you get your inspiration for recipes?
DS: I've always read all the latest cookery books, all the magazines from around the world. The best cookery is from America. I know all we hear from America is that they're overweight and they eat too much but the cooks and the chefs are good. Alice Walters is the star of American cooking. I like Martha Stewart very much. There's a lovely magazine called Saveur - it's wonderful.
What are your views on celebrity endorsement?
DS: I've never done it. I might, if we have financial problems with the football club. I might sell my soul for the football club. But I've never done it so far. What's happened is if I think it's good I tell people, I don't get paid for it. The commercial reward is here today and gone tomorrow but if you get the trust of the people?. Probably I've sold more books and made more money because I didn't do it.
How do you feel about the St Delia image?
DS: I hate it.
Are you a perfectionist? Are you difficult to work with?
DS: Yes. It's the way I'm made and I don't want to do anything unless it's done to the very best it can be. I wouldn't say I've got any enemies and the people who work for me tend to want what I want anyway. They've got the vision.
What are your views on healthy eating?
DS: I don't believe there's any such thing as unhealthy eating. If the food is natural and good I don't have a problem with eating anything.
Are good ingredients the key to everything?
DS: Yes. When this restaurant (at Norwich City) opens full time next year we will source all our own ingredients. We will have pedigree Aberdeen Angus beef. We've got people in Norfolk who do the most wonderful free-range pork. We've got wonderful producers of free-range ducks, smoked fish, vegetables, fruits. And we have Welsh mountain lamb direct from the farmer.
What are your hopes for the future?
DS: Premiership. We need the money!
What about retirement?
DS: I will slow down. I'll just pick and choose. I?ll start at ten and finish at four. My ambition is to build a team that is so good that they don't need me. I spent five years doing How To Cook and it finished in March this year, so I haven't really had time for myself. It was very time consuming and very tiring and now I don't have any major plans at all, which is lovely.